F 
139 

Oi2' 




QUAKER HILL 
S E R I E S 



XI IL Some Glimpses ot 
the [past. 



BY 



ALICIA HOPKINS TABER, 




Class EilM 

Book- 






SOME GLIMPSES 
OF THE PAST. 



BY 



ALICIA HOPKINS TABER. 



READ AT THE SIXTH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE 
QUAKER HILL CONFERENCE, SEPTEMBER 
THE SEVENTEENTH, NINETEEN HUND- 
RED AND FOUR. 



PUBUaBBD BY THE QUi^KER HiLL CoNrERENCE ABaOOUTIOK 

QcAKBR Hill, New York 
1905 



PuMications 

Of the Quaker Hill Conference Association 

A Critical Study of the Bible, by Rev. Newton M. 
Hall of Springfield, Mass. 

The Keiation of the Church at Home to the 
Church Abroad, by Rev. George William Knox, D. D., of 
New York, 

A Tenable Theory of Biblical Inspiration, by 
Prof. Irving Francis Wood of Northampton, Mass. 

The Book Farmer, by Edward H. Jenkins, Ph. D., of 
New Haven, Conn. 

LOCAL HISTORY SERIES 

David Irish— A Memoir, by his daughter, Mrs. Phoebe 
T. Wauzer of Quaker Hill, N, Y. 

Quaker Hill in the Eighteenth Century, by Rev. 
Warren H. Wilson of Brooklyn, N. Y. 

Quaker Hill in the Nineteenth Century, by Rev. 
Warren H. Wilson of Brooklyn, N. Y. 

Hiram B. Jones and His School, by Rev. Edward L. 
Chichester of Quaker Hill, N, Y, 

Richard 0.-iboru— A Reminiscence, by Margaret B. 
Monahan of Quaker Hill, N, Y, 

Albert J. Akin— A Tribute, by Rev. Warren H. Wilson 
of Brooklyn. N, Y, 

Ancient Homes and Early Days at Quaker Hill, 
by Amanda Akin Stearns of Quaker Hill, N. Y, 

Thomas Taber and Edward Shove — A Reminiscence 
—by Rev. Benjamin Shove of New York, 

Some Glimpses of the Past, by Alicia Hopkins 
Taber of Pawling. N. Y. 

The Purcha-ie Meeting, by James Wood of Mt 
Kisco, N. Y. 

Any one of these publications may be had by addressing 
the Secretary, Rkv. Edward L. Chichester, 

Quaker Hill, N. Y 
Price Ten Cents. Twelva Cents Postpaid 



Gift 

pBbMsher 



SOME GLIMPSES OF 
THE PAST. 


Our ancestors who settled this part of 
the country were of English descent and all 
wished for landed property, but with the 
primitive modes of transportation and the 
poor roads it was necessary to have diff- 
erent kinds of business carried on in each 
neighborhood, consequently while all were 
nominally farmers, many conducted some 
other branch of business as well. Thus we 
had in this neighborhood Ransom Aldrich, 
tanner and currier; John Toffey, and later 
Joseph Seely, hatters; some of the Arnolds 
were also hatters. A great uncle of our 
townsman, Richard Osborn, one Amos 
Osborn, was a tanner, and also made pot- 
tery. Jeptha Sabin and Josiah Hungerford 
were saddlers and harness-makers. Then 
there was the store, which was Daniel 
Merritt's in the early 1760's and descended 
to his sons. 

Daniel and John Merritt sold to Daniel 

3 



Peckham and Josiah Hungerford, who sold 
to one Whitely. He later sold it to James 
Craft, whose store is remembered by many 
of the older people of today. There was 
Peter Field, a silversmith, whose shop was 
robbed here, and we hear of him later as 
having a jewelry store in New York. Henry 
Birdsell was a butcher, but he did not keep 
a shop where his neighbors could go for 
meat as they needed it. His method of 
doing business was to kill once a week, 
then take his meat and drive from house to 
house until he succeeded in selling it all. 
This often necessitated his driving well 
into the town of Dover and sometimes 
even into Washington before he was able 
to turn toward home with empty wagon, 

Abram Thomas was a blacksmith and it 
is said that he made the nails that were 
used in the construction of this meeting- 
house. It is also a tradition that guns 
were made on the Hill, for use in the time 
of the Revolution. 

George Kirby came to Quaker Hill about 
1780 and had a blacksmith shop, and later 
there was a shop on the present site of 
Mrs. Scott's cottage, which was known as 
Marsh's blacksmith shop. 

Hiram Sherman had a wagon makers* 

4 



shop, where coffins were also made, as 
must have been some of the tools used on 
the farms; it is known that the first revolv- 
ing hay rakes used in this country were 
made there. 

Albro Akin had a saw mill in what is 
now known as the Glen; also he and his 
brother, Daniel, had stores on opposite 
sides of the road on the places now recog- 
nized as their homesteads. 

John Toffee kept a country store at the 
corner. John Hays was a tailor, and 
Steven Riggs a shoemaker; then there was 
Isaac Ingersoll, a tanner, making three 
tanneries on the Hill, but they must have 
had plenty to do as each farmer must him- 
self have the leather prepared for all the 
shoes of their often numerous families and 
the harnesses and saddles needed on their 
farms. Just below the Hill Wm. Taberhad 
what I suppose were called woolen mills, 
consisting of a carding machine and fulling 
mill; they also colored, pressed and dressed 
the cloth. He also had a grist mill a little 
further down the stream. 

Mrs. Jedediah Wanzer tells of a grist 
mill in the glen just off the steep rock 
below the present dam where the grain 
was taken in at the top of the building, 
which had all disappeared when she was 

5 



a little girl, the millstone alone being left. 
My father remembers hearing that there 
used to be a forge on the Glen stream and 
that magnetic ore was drawn there from 
Brewster to be worked up. 

The dairy farming of the present day 
was an unheard of thing. In those times 
the cow was not the all important animal, 
although each farmer kept enough cows 
to provide his own family with milk, butter 
and cheese, and each would keep sufficient 
sheep to provide the wool needed each 
year. They all raised more or less hogs, 
and where the number which exceeded 
the needs of the family were not sufficient 
to make it pay for the farmer to go to the 
river with them, they were taken to the 
nearby store keeper who took them in 
barter. In fact most of the trading at the 
stores was done by barter, as money was 
then scarce. Occasionally there was a 
farm where more cows were kept and the 
chief interest was that of making butter 
and cheese, like that of David Irish, where 
butter was made and hogs fatted. He also 
kept fine wool sheep. Daniel and David 
Merritt, some of the Aliens, my grand- 
father, Johnathan Akin Taber, and George 
P. Taber were all as far as I can find that 
raised the fine wool sheep to any extent. 

6 



My grandfather kept about eleven hundred, 
some merino and some saxony. I do not 
know how many the others kept. Fine 
wool was worth from six to ten shillings a 
pound. In this county at that time were 
at least two factories for the manufacture of 
fine broadcloth, one at Hart's Village, 
owned by Isaac Merritt, the other that of 
Titus & Sweet, near Poughkeepsie. But 
the chief business of most farmers was the 
fatting of cattle. The cattle were generally 
bought when from two to three years old, 
usually in the fall, kept through the winter 
and the following summer fattened and sold. 
They were the only things that did not 
have to go to the river to reach the market. 
From all over the country they were driven 
to New York on foot, and the road through 
the valley was the main thoroughfare for 
them. Monday was the market day in 
New York and all started in time to reach 
the city by Saturday. From Pawling the 
cattle were started on Thursday, and those 
from greater distances planned to reach 
this part of their journey on that day. It 
used to be said that the dealers could tell 
what the market would be in New York on 
the following Monday by watching the 
cattle that passed through Pawling on 

7 



Thursday. The cattle were collected and 
taken to the city by drovers, which was a 
great business in those days. Hotels or 
taverns were provided for their accommo- 
dation at frequent intervals along the road. 
Ira Griffm was a drover and Mr. Archibald 
Dodge remembers when a boy going to 
New York with him and his cattle, walk- 
ing all the way. There were also droves of 
cattle other than fat ones, on the road, 
some called store cattle, and the books of 
Mr. Benjamin V. Haviland, who kept one 
of the taverns, show that in the year 1847 
there had been kept on his place 27,784 
cattle, 30,000 sheep and 700 mules, and it 
is said that occasionally there would be 
2,000 head between his tavern and that of 
John Preston's in Dover. When Mr. Albert 
J. Akin was a young man he was consid- 
ered an expert judge and buyer of steers for 
fattening and generally had the fmest herd 
of fat cattle. 

Machinery was very primitive. For the 
gathering of the hay there was nothing but 
the scythe,the hand rake and the pitchfork, 
consequently it required much more time 
and many hands to secure the crop. The 
scythes were of domestic manufacture, as 
well as the forks, being made at the black- 

8 



smiths in the neighborhood. The hay was 
often drawn together with ropes and the 
larger part of it stacked out of doors and 
fed there, as they did not think it necessary 
to house their cattle in winter. 

They had standards of work and knew 
what a good day's work was. To mow 
an acre of heavy grass in a forenoon, one 
might have a boy to stir the hay, then 
rake it into win-rows and cock it before 
night was considered a large day's work, 
and a man who could do this would be 
called an expert, and would receive a dol- 
lar a day. The usual wage in haying was 
75c.; a man got 50c. a day for hoeing corn 
or any ordinary work, and there was con- 
siderable talk because at that time they had 
to pay a half a dollar for their supper on 
the boat when going to New York. To 
reach New York people were obliged to 
drive to the Hudson River and take a sloop 
or later a barge, which usually went down 
in the night, thus finding themselves in 
the city in the morning. 

Grandfather had a large farm and was 
obliged to have at least a dozen men and 
often more to gather his hay and grain. 
About the year 1812 great-grandfather sold 
1,000 bushels of wheat for two and a half 
dollars per bushel. All men that were 

9 



employed on the farm in those days board- 
ed in the farmer's house, so that in times 
of extra work on the farm the family was 
so much larger that it necessitated more 
help in the house as well. Extra meals had 
to be furnished, as in haying the men 
would commence work at least an hour 
before sunrise and work as long as they 
could see, having supper by candle light. 
This, with the early breakfast, necessitated 
the substantial lunches which were carried 
out into the field in the middle of both the 
forenoon and afternoon. 

Uncle Johnathan Akin used to hire his 
haying done and paid six shillings and a 
quart of rum per acre. 

Men that can look back to those times 
agree in considering that the resources of 
the farm were much greater than at the 
present time. Much more cultivation was 
carried on, although their plows were all 
made of wood, except a piece of iron on 
the point of the share and an iron rod 
which held it to the beam ; the first cast 
iron plow we hear of being used on the 
Hill was in 1823. Flax was an important 
crop, some to be spun at home and some 
sold. 

Wheat, oats and rye were then raised in 
10 



this part of the country on a much larger 
scale. Fields of peas were raised for the 
hogs, and potatoes grew easily, not being 
troubled by the potato bug. 

It was customary to have cider on the 
table at every meal, the ladies would have 
their tea, but most of the men drank cider 
largely, many to excess, consequently 
there were great quantities made in the fall 
and stored in the cellars during the winter. 
A large farmer would lay out a great deal 
of work, gathering from ten to twenty cart- 
loads of apples, hooping and cleaning bar- 
rels, and many ground and pressed their 
own cider, then the large casks were 
drawn to and placed in the cellars. 
This usually occupied a large part 
of the month of October. In the 
spring a portion of the hard cider would 
be taken to a distiller, and made into cider 
brandy to be used in the haying and har- 
vest field, at sheep washings, butchering, 
raisings, shearings and on many other occa- 
sions. Some was always on the sideboard 
and often on the table. In most house- 
holds there were sideboards well furnished 
with spirits, brandy, home-made wine, 
metheglin, etc., which were offered to 
guests. It was a fashion or custom to 
11 



offer a drink of some kind whenever a 
neighbor called. 

My grandfather being obliged to have so 
many men for at least two months each 
year becamie disgusted with the custom of 
furnishing so much cider and spirits to the 
men in the field, as many of them would 
come to the house at supper time without 
any appetite and in a quarrelsome mood. 
There would be wrestlings and fighting 
during the evening and the chain in the 
v/ell could be heard rattling all night long. 
So one year, probably about 1835 or '36, he 
decided that he v/ould do it no longer. His 
brother and many of his neighbors tried to 
dissuade him and prophesied that he would 
not be able to get sufficient help to secure 
his crops, but he declared he would give 
up farming before he would endure it any 
longer, and announced when securing his 
extra help for that summer that he would 
furnish no cider or spirits in the field, but 
that coffee and other drinks would be car- 
ried out and that every man should have a 
ration of spirits at each meal. Most of 
the men he had had in past years came 
back and seemed to be glad to be out of 
the way of temptation. The next year he 
dispensed with the ration at meal times, 
12 



and the custom grew among his neighbors 
with surprising rapidity, it was but a few 
years when it became general, with a few 
exceptions, where the farmer himself was 
fond of it, until today such a thing is not 
heard of, and in fact, the f^irmer, like the 
railroads and other large corporations, do 
not care to employ a man that is in the 
habit of using spirits at all. 

In the winter the thrashing was done 
mostly by hand with the flail, but some 
spread the grain on the large barn floor and 
it was trodden out by horses. In the early 
part of the winter the fire wood was cut, 
then hauled when the opportunity cam.e. 
By the first of April they expected to have 
the wood for the year cut up and piled. 

On my grandfather's farm from forty to 
sixty hogs were raised and killed when a 
year and a half old, the feeding of which 
meant much labor and time, as fourteen 
large arch kettles of food had to be cooked 
each day in early winter. They fed the 
cattle and sheep in the fields and when 
heavy snows came the sheep were often 
buried and had to be searched for or lost. 
Then there were many stones on the farms 
as our stone walls prove. Grandfather 
Field kept three yoke of oxen, which drew 

13 



stone to clear his land at all times when 

not otherwise needed. 
The washing and shearing of large nocks 

of sheep we know nothing of here today. 
We must conclude they could not have 

suffered from loneliness or ennui; busy 
people never do. Mr. Richard Osborn 
Slsofa hat which his father bought m 

Pouohkeepsie, in the crown of which was 

■Domestic industry is the wealth o 

nationsZ-anditwouldseemthatmos of 

the people of this community had taken 
this as their motto. 

There could not have been many idle 
moments with the numerous and various 
duties for all, both outdoors and in. In 
the house aside from the ever present 
p nning there must have been much 
Sng as all garmems were made at 
home The men's fine shirts and many 
otter'things were finished with stitching 
a even and as fine as by the machine stitclv 
ina we know so well, but done by hand. 
TlTey knit all the stockings, both woolen 
for winter and linen for summer, as well 
•IS the mittens needed. 
' Then there were the linen or muslin 
curtains for windows and beds and the 
bed valences to be made and frequently 



laundered; also the heavy woolen or quilted 
ones which were hung in their places for 
the winter to keep out the bitter cold. 

The fuel being all wood there was a 
great quantity of ashes, which were care- 
fully housed until the proper time came 
for leaching them for soap, and every house 
wife had a receipt for making soft soap, for 
which all superfluous grease was carefully 
saved. Soft soap was sold to the fullers 
or taken by the store keepers, and brought 
four dollars a barrel. Then they had to 
provide their own lights, and the making 
of the candles took much time and 
patience. They were obliged to prepare 
the wool or the rags for the carpets. In 
the fall large quantities of apple sauce and 
apple butter were made, but our grand- 
mothers seemed to find time for their fancy 
work, the making of those marvellous 
patchwork quilts, ''the double Irish chain," 
the ''sunburst," "goose-chase," "chariot 
wheel," those with large stars and small 
stars and various other patterns, and with 
borders having vines with leaves and 
flowers and even birds, but all giving 
abundant opportunity for the beautiful 
quilting that must ever be admired. 

The people were sociable and hospitable, 

15 



if not far from a meal time any friend or 
stranger coming near the house for either 
business or pleasure was always invited to 
come in and partake. When inviting 
friends or neighbors it was to spend the 
day and they to come early in the forenoon 
and stay until after supper. Much visiting 
was done and long journeys taken for that 
purpose. I remember hearing of Aunt 
Phebe Quimby, who lived at Chappaqua, 
Westchester County, who used to come in 
her own coach once a year to visit her 
friends on Quaker Hill, going on to visit 
those at Nine Partners, but she did not 
waste her time on those long drives, as it is 
said that she knit all the way. 

It is known that Anna Slocum, the wife 
of George Kirby, went back to New Bed- 
ford on horse-back six times. In going 
out of an evening a young lady did not ride 
her own horse, but was mounted on a 
pillion behind her escort. There were no 
one horse wagons, but most riding was 
done in wagon chairs (an armed chair 
made wide enough for two to sit in), which 
were placed in a lumber box wagon, al- 
though some had a more fancy wagon 
made by Hiram Sherman, the box ot which 
rounded up at both ends, with paneled side 
16 



boards and half as high again in the rear 
as in front; the seats were also placed on 
slender sticks reaching up and back a few 
feet from where fastened to the bottom of 
the wagon, thus furnishing a sort of spring. 
These wagons were generally painted yel- 
low or green. Many of the Society of 
Friends had regular coaches not very diff- 
erent from those of the present day. The 
coach was probably the English carriage in 
common use at the time of George Fox, or 
the organization of the Friends' Society. 
The first one horse conveyance was the 
chaise, having a top and but two wheels. 
There has also been many changes in 
what we call table etiquette and the man- 
ner in which the food was served. We 
have all heard of the traditional time when 
the food was served in a large trencher in 
the center of the table from which all of the 
family ate, but that was long before the 
days of Quaker Hill, The earliest we learn 
of here the head of the house helped each 
member of the family to the main dinner, 
but butter was put upon the table on two 
or three plates, according to the size of the 
family, each using from the plate nearest 
them, and so with preserves or sauce as 
they called it, although there might be 
17 



more dishes of it; they were not individual 
dishes. Four glasses were all that were 
considered necessary upon a table at one 
meal. 

A part of our grandmothers' training as 
she grew into young ladyhood was to be 
able to pour her tea from her cup into 
her saucer nicely without spilling any and 
then to be able to lift the saucer to her lips 
in a graceful manner. At each plate was 
placed what the children might call a cun- 
ning little bread and butter plate, but was 
really a cup plate. All were taught to eat 
with their knives, as the forks of the day 
had but two tines, making them very 
unhandy, but the knife must be properly 
used. It was almost as shocking then to 
eat with the edge of the knife toward the 
face as we consider it now to use a knife 
at all. In fact many of the knives were 
made with a rounding extension on the 
back near the end forming something like a 
flat spoon. There are some of them still left 
in the town. The spoon was always left 
standing in the cup as it was equivalent to 
asking for another cup of tea to remove it 
from the cup and place it in the saucer. 

Another feature of those days which 
differs much from our own was the man- 
18 



ner in which the town took care of the 
poor, of whom there seemed to be a large 
number. There were two Overseers of the 
Poor and the office was no sinecure. 

A meeting of the Overseers and the 
Justices of the Peace was held once a year 
for the disposing of the poor, or putting out 
of the poor, as they called it. For many 
years they met at the house or inn of Gideon 
Slocum & Son. The poor people were 
given into the keeping of the lowest bidder 
and the amounts paid per year differed 
presumably according to their ability to 
work, and ranged usually between thirteen 
and forty-five dollars per year, but for one 
man there was paid eighty-five dollars. 
Then there were many others for whom 
the town seemed to pay only at times 
and others where house rent was provided 
while for still others wood and provisions 
were furnished from time to time, and there 
seems to have been a great tendency to try 
to get the poor out of one town into an- 
other; hence the state law that no one could 
rent a house to any person from any other 
town without the consent of the Overseers 
of the Poor. We have applications, one 
from George Kirby and the other from Jus- 
tus Sheldon, where they assure the Over- 

19 



seers of the Poor that their prospective ten- 
ants are known to have such and such 
property, or are able bodied, self supporting 
people. Still there were numerous law 
suits between the different towns and we 
are told of twenty-five dollars being given 
to one man to take his old father down to 
Delaware and leave him. 

Tramps were plenty, but not strangers 
that roamed the whole country, for the 
same ones returned to a locality year 
after year and were often known by name, 
but were a thieving, wretched set. Once 
when a baking was taken from the brick 
oven and set upon the hearth, one of 
these tramps came along and, the outside 
door being open, he took two pies and 
going down the road a ways, got over the 
fence and ate them. Again one helped 
himself to a couple of silver spoons. On 
both of these occasions some farm hands 
followed them and took them to the Del- 
evan House, at what is now called Akin's 
Corner, near Patterson, where were several 
athletic young men, who assisted in search- 
ing the one and finding the spoons with 
their handles bent up inside the three or 
four coats he was wearing, and in both cases 

20 



the tramps were treated to a thorough 
flogging with a horse whip. 

The people then felt much the need 
of improvement in their roads and in 
their means of transportation. For the 
improvement of the roads most traveled 
turnpikes were formed. In fact, turn- 
pikes seemed to be a fad in those days 
all over the state and probably a necessary 
one. The longest one I learn of in this 
part of the country was from Cold Spring 
on the Hudson River to New Milford in 
Connecticut. The turnpike in which the 
people of this neighborhood were most 
interested was the one incorporated April 
3, 1818, and reads ''That Albro Akin, John 
Merritt, Gideon Slocum, Job Crawford, 
Charles Hurd, William Taber, Joseph 
Arnold, Egbert Carey, Gabriel L. Vander- 
burgh, Newel Dodge, Jurs., and such other 
persons as shall associate for the purpose of 
making a good and sufficent turnpike road 
in Dutchess Co." It was named as the 
Pawlings and Beekman Turnpike, being a 
portion of what is known as the Pough- 
keepsie road passing over the West Moun- 
tain, but we do not find that anything was 
done until after the act was revived in 1824, 
when Joseph C. Seeley, Benoni Pearce, 
21 



Samuel Allen, Benjamin Burr and George 
W. Slocum were associated with them. It 
is said that before the turnpike was built 
the road was so full of stones, large and 
small, that the people of today would con- 
sider it impassable for an empty wagon, to 
say nothing of drawing a load over it. In 
the fall of the year it is said that toward 
evening one could hear the hammering of 
the wheels of the wagons on the stones of 
this road at a distance of four or five miles. 

The first attempt at public transportation 
of which we learn was a canal laid out from 
Albany to New York through what is now 
called the Harlem Valley, but cannot learn 
who were the promoters. A map of it 
was found among my great-grandfather's 
papers and we have a letter to my grand- 
father from Albany with regard to the 
advisability of putting a railroad up this 
valley, saying that knowing he was so much 
interested in the proposed canal, they 
wrote him hoping that he would interest 
the pubHc-spirited men in this neighbor- 
hood in the new plan. 

Many, if not all, did become interested, 

but some must have objected, as we hear 

of one man who said that whose ever farm 

that passed through would have to give up 

22 



fattening cattle, as it would be impossible 
to keep a steer on the place. Many through 
whose land it did pass gave the necessary 
land and right of way, and some also gave 
much time and took long journeys in its 
interest, those doing the most of this as 
far as I can learn were Jonathan Akin, 
Daniel D. Akin and J. Akin Taber. The hit- 
ter's home being near the line of the rail- 
road, was honored by visits from most of 
the prominent men interested in the under- 
taking. 

This section of the road was opened on 
December 31, 1849, which meant much to 
the business interests, and is responsible 
for many of the changes. 

Mrs. Laura Sherwood, who is now in 
her 95th year, was the daughter of Syl- 
vanus Stewart, and was born and grew to 
womanhood two and a half miles east of 
this meeting house in Sherman, Conn. 
She has given me the following recollec- 
tions of her childhood days: 

RECOLLECTIONS OF MRS. LAURA SHERWOOD. 

According to my early recollections of 
farm life, its industries and resources in my 
native town, many cattle were fatted and 
23 



driven to the New York market, often by 
the farmers themselves. 

Mixed farming was the rule, every farm 
producing nearly everything required by 
the family in the way of food and clothing, 
even to "sweetness;" for in the spring the 
maple sugar and syrup, and in the fall the 
sweet apple juice boiled down to molasses 
made the demand upon the southern cane 
fields much smaller than it would other- 
wise have been. Wheat, rye, oats and 
corn were the grains raised, and among 
the most important crops was flax, sowed 
in the spring, pulled in the fall, when ripe, 
and laid down in the fields to "rot," then 
broken and swingled, and "hatchelled," 
leaving the fibre clear. In the winter it 
was carded, spun, and woven for clothing, 
bedding and table linen, towelling and 
bagging. The flax was also an article of 
barter and commerce. Every f^irmer kept a 
flock of sheep and when sheared in June 
the wool was "picked," "greased," and 
taken to the carding machine, sometimes 
carried many miles over the hills to the 
factory at New Milford on horseback by 
myself, a little girl of ten or twelve, with a 
huge bundle of wool or, in returning, of 
rolls, towering above my head, fastened 
24 



on the back of my horse behind the saddle. 

When carded, the rolls were spun in the 
house, the daughters beginning at eight or 
ten years old, besides women hired for that 
purpose. A loom was in every house and 
many wheels for flax and wool. On every 
farm was kept a flock of geese, which 
were picked once in six weeks to keep 
up the supply of feather beds and to 
furnish the requisite number for the outfit 
of each daughter of the family. 

In addition to the farm work, in many 
instances, other mdustries were carried on, 
as wagon making, tanning, a saw mill or 
grist mill, a fulling mill, flax mill, or card- 
ing machine, a blacksmith shop or cabinet 
shop — as most of the best furniture was 
made in the town, much of it now standing 
firm as well as ornamental, outlasting the 
more modern machine made, even after 
nearly a century of use. 

Butter and cheese making were an im- 
portant part of the business and income of 
the farmer's family, the butter being packed 
and sent weekly to the Hudson River boats 
for New York markets, or to Bridgeport or 
New Haven — a two-days' journey in either 
case. The cheese was ripened, or cured, 
25 



being rubbed and turned every day, and 
kept until the dealers came around to in- 
spect and purchase. 

The tailor came to the house for his an- 
nual visit (sometimes it was a tailoress), 
to make up the woolen clothing for the 
men of the family and outside wraps for 
the women (called * 'great-coats"), after the 
cloth was prepared, that is, woven, fulled 
and pressed, — the thread being spun and 
twisted by hand. 

The shoemaker also came to make the 
yearly supply of boots and shoes from the 
leather tanned from the skins of the ani- 
mals slaughtered for the table, and, with 
shoe bench and lapstone, was a famil- 
iar figure in every home in autumn and 
winter days. 

In building, most of the timber was tak- 
en from the *' wood lot," the finer lumber 
drawn by horses or oxen from distant 
cities; the shingles were hand-made, rived 
or cut by hand from blocks sawed into 
proper length, and shaved down with a 
drawing knife by an expert hired for that 
purpose 

There were no stoves in use, the open 
fires on the hearth, skillfully built with a 
huge "backlog" and ''fore-stick," furnished 
26 



warmth and ventilation; and over and be- 
fore these great fires were done the cook- 
ing and all other work requiring heat. As 
matches were unknown, these fires were 
never expected to go out; but if by chance 
or neglect such a thing occurred, someone 
must go to a neighbor's house to "borrow 
fire;" so, being the youngest, I was sent 
on such occasions to bring a shovel of coals, 
or a burning brand, to start anew. 

Journeys for business or pleasure were 
made mostly on horseback, and I' took long 
rides on the horse behind my mother to 
visit relatives out of town when she was 
past fifty. Others of our family traveled in 
the same way to visit relatives in what was 
then called ''the west " until the Erie Canal 
was built, and they could go in an easier 
way, and it was considered as great a 
wonder as the trolley was to us in later 
times, 

As there were no markets in country 
towns, every farmer was his own butcher, 
and the supply of fresh meat was kept up 
by a system of borrowing and lending 
among neighbors. 

The ceaseless round of varied industry 
left little time for idleness, yet there was no 
lack of social intercourse and amusement. 
27 



Thanksgiving Day was the great occasion 
for family gatherings; then the large brick 
ovens and tin bakers (or ovens made of tin 
to stand before the open fireplace), were 
kept hotter than usual, baking the chicken 
pies, spare-ribs, mince, pumpkin and tart 
pies (a delicious pastry filled with cider 
apple sauce, spiced and highly seasoned), 
while the turkey hung on the spit before 
the fire. An old Quaker Hill merchant 
once said he always knew when the 
Yankees were to hold Thanksgiving, for 
they came to his store for so many grocer- 
ies, spices, &c., and I remember going 
there on horseback, when a child, for tea 
and groceries. 

The biennial training of the local militia 
was another of the great days of the year, 
when the martial music of the fife and drum 
roused the enthusiasm and patriotism of the 
community, especially the young, and 
when the General Training was held in the 
town of Sherman, bringing the general 
officers in full uniform and high military 
authority. It was a day still remembered 
andtalkedof as its traditions and incidents 
are handed down from one generation 
to another, an event only second to 
28 



General Washington's review of the 
army in Pawling. 

The visits of the weekly mail carrier 
kept the people in touch with the outside 
world, bringing his small bag of papers 
and letters from Bridgeport on foot, and I 
well remember his loud cry announcing 
his arrival: "News! News!! Some lies and 
some truths!!" Letters were few and 
precious, with postage at 25 cents each. 
A strong characteristic of these times was 
a deep reverence for the Sabbath, the 
church and the minister, always an influ- 
ence toward the moral uplifting of any 
community. 

Also another mark of the times was am- 
bition for education. Teachers were pains- 
taking, thorough and severe, and awakened 
a desire for the highest possible mental 
attainment, thus stimulating ''high think- 
ing," with the necessary "plain living," at 
wages of from $4.00 to $10.00 per month. 

The minister, who was also school in- 
spector, on his salary of $200 or $300, and 
the proceeds of his small farm, which he 
carried on himself, educated his sons at 
Yale, and sent them out to worthily fill 
pulpits of their own, and many other young 
men of the town, by teaching and in other 
29 



ways, worked their way through Yale, 
and fitted themselves for professions, some- 
times walking the forty miles or more, to 
and from home — as there was no public 
conveyance — a practical system of ath- 
letics not attended by danger to life and 
limb or any of the objectionable features of 
modern athletic fields. 



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